Tag Archives: Family

The Sisters Hemingway

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Author: Annie England Noblin
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Family Fiction
Source: Amelia at William Morrow Paperbacks

 

Goodreads: The Sisters Hemingway: they couldn’t be more different…or more alike.

The Hemingway Sisters of Cold River, Missouri are local legends. Raised by a mother obsessed with Ernest Hemingway, they were named after the author’s four wives—Hadley, Pfeiffer, Martha, and Mary. The sisters couldn’t be more different—or more alike. Now they’re back in town, reunited to repair their fractured relationships.

Hadley is the poised, polished wife of a senator.

Pfeiffer is a successful New York book editor.

Martha has skyrocketed to Nashville stardom.

They each have a secret—a marriage on the rocks,  a job lost, a stint in rehab…and they haven’t been together in years.

Together, they must stay in their childhood home, faced with a puzzle that may affect all their futures. As they learn the truth of what happened to their mother—and their youngest sister, Mary—they rekindle the bonds they had as children, bonds that have long seemed broken. With the help of neighbors, friends, love interests old and new—and one endearing and determined Basset Hound—the Sisters Hemingway learn that he happiness that has appeared so elusive may be right here at home, waiting to be claimed.

Ope’s Opinion: I really liked the sister relationships in this story.  Most of the secrets were told up front ( which I really like ), but there were some that were held to the end. 

The overall pace of the story was a little on the slow side for me.  I also felt like I was reading a story, not really involved or a part of it.  I wanted things to work out, but I wasn’t real invested in the characters.

The ending let you know where everyone is now – it was a very satisfying ending.

 

Boat Floating

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At Mount Vernon with our family for a day of boating,
floating and maybe a little reading.

Payton’s first trip on the boat!
She wants to know when she is going again.
She took over one of the floats.

Emma is an old pro at this.
She would like to be the first mate!

The little guy ( Max ) isn’t sure about this!
Wait until next year, he’ll be all over the place.

Thank you Kristi and John Paul for a great day on the boat.

Coming Soon….

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In July I hope to read….

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Publication Date: July 11, 2017
Publisher:  William Morrow

Goodreads: With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

What is coming soon …. to a bookshelf near you?

Let me know – I am always looking for a good read!

Abby’s Journey

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Author: Steena Holmes
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Travel
Source:  Steena Holmes

Goodreads:  Twenty-year-old Abigail Turner has only known her mother, Claire—who died shortly after she was born—through letters, videos, postcards, and journals. Abby’s father, Josh, has raised his precious daughter himself, but his overprotectiveness has become stifling. Abby longs to forge out on her own and see the world after a childhood trapped indoors: she suffers from bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which means a case of the sniffles can rapidly escalate into life-threatening pneumonia.

But when Abby’s doctor declares her healthy—for now—her grandmother Millie whisks her away to Europe to visit the Christmas markets that her mother cherished and chronicled in her travel journals. Despite her father’s objections, Abby and Millie embark on a journey of discovery in which Abby will learn secrets that force her to reevaluate her image of her mother and come to a more mature understanding of a parent-child bond that transcends death.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Steena Holmes offers a tender and heartfelt exploration of parental love and a daughter’s longing for connection in the poignant next chapter following Saving Abby.

Ope’s Opinion:  This book could be read as a stand alone, but reading Saving Abby first makes it more meaningful.  Having Abby’s family background gives you more understanding to the characters in this story.

Steena Holmes wrote this in such a way that I felt each character.  I understood each of  their points of view.  She also wrote Abby’s trip in such a way that I could see where she was – it made me want to take my own trip to see all the markets.

Once again, thank you Steena Holmes for your amazing writing!

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